Lilly Kolts Be’Soer is a women’s rights defender and advocate for the political, economic and social empowerment of women in her native Papua New Guinea. She hails from Jiwaka Province in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Lilly is the founder and director for Voice for Change (VFC), a provincial NGO based and working in Jiwaka Province. Voice for Change focuses on ending violence against women and girls, and building alliances with communities and provinical government in Jiwaka to advocate for safer communities and an end to all forms of violence.
Lilly has assisted in facilitating mediation among the parties in tribal conflicts and wars. In January 2012, she coordinated a peace reconciliation to resettle about 500 internally displaced families and helped set up a committee to address sorcery-related violence.
Lilly is part of the newly established regional network of women’s human rights defenders and is part of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women. Lilly is also a member of the UN Women Asia Pacific Civil Society Advisory Group; a member of the Jiwaka Provincial Committee on Budgeting and Planning; Chair of the Family Violence Support Group in South Whagi District of Jiwaka Province; and received the 2010 Pacific Human Rights Defenders Award.
The 70 Inspiring Pacific Women campaign has been produced by the Pacific Community (SPC) in partnership with Australian Aid and Pacific Women. The campaign marks the 70th anniversary of SPC, and leads up to the 13th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and 6th Meeting of Ministers for Women in Suva (Fiji) from 2nd to 5th October 2017.